Colorado Fraud Suspect Disappears In Egypt
DENVER (CBS4)- The chaos in Egypt is preventing authorities in Colorado from determining if a man charged with Medicaid fraud in the state is dead or alive.
Emad Hanna was charged late last year, but refused to turn himself in. Now his family claims he went to Egypt, where he died.
There is no proof Hanna died in Egypt, except what his family told CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger.
"He has passed away. He passed away," said Hanna's father.
Criminal charges filed accuse Hanna of bilking the state and federal government out of $70,000 in Medicaid funds.
"I would say I am somewhat suspicious because it's half a world away where the man passed away, but things like that do happen," said First Assistant Attorney General Timothy Sokas.
The charges involve Hanna's company, Admired Transportation, which provided rides for Medicaid recipients to their appointments.
Medicaid was billed for William Owen's trips to an adult daycare center. The bill included $2,300 for trips he didn't take.
"It breaks your heart because we are all paying for that one way or another," said Owen's stepdaughter Judith Jaeger. "Then one day, nobody called, they just didn't show up."
The state claims Hanna billed Medicaid for 11 client trips on a Labor Day holiday when the facilities were not open. For one client, Medicaid was billed more than $12,000 for what the state claims were non-existent trips. Another bill totaled $6,400 for taking a woman to daycare who didn't go.
"I had a patient whose mother told me that they were being billed for a few trips that were not made," said Admired Transportation former employee Ed Wilkerson.
Wilkerson drove for Hanna and Admired Transportation until he found out he was medically unfit.
"That's when he told me, 'Well, I'll pay you under the table and deny that you work here.' I can't do that, so I quit," said Wilkerson.
When asked if he knew anything about the allegations against Hanna, Wilkerson replied, "I knew nothing about it."
The last the state heard from Hanna is when they told him to turn himself in. Last month, Hanna's father called to say his son was in Alexandria, Egypt - dead.
"We put faith in what they say, but we try to verify what it is that they have told us," said Sokas. Hanna was facing up to 12 years in prison, if convicted.
CBS4 could find no obituary or mention of Hanna on the Social Security death registry. His family declined to offer any documentation.
